The Cold Equations

This is the fourth postal (PBM/PBeM) game of Star Trader GMed by Mike Dommett and published by Pevans in my postal games 'zine, To Win Just Once. This is the web version of the turn. Follow the link for an introduction to Star Trader.

Turn 10

Previous reports: Turn 9 Turn 8 Turn 7 Turn 6 Turn 5 Turn 4 Turn 3 Turn 2 Turn 1 Start-up

Sections: Report, Corporations Table, Press, GM Notes, Star map (separate page) PDF map (22k)

“What the hell is that?”
    “The outer hull has blown.”
The outrush of air before the seals shut down confirmed the analysis.
    “That’s the far side of the decks.”
    “Where the military hull was berthed.”
    “Oh no!”

The sound of explosions echoing round the decks of three spaceports dominates news this Quarter.

MONOGRAM INDUSTRIES suffered most. Big Change took 7 hits and Trump Change took 5 hits, both at Sigma Draconis. Worse was the fate of Small Change at Mu Herculis and Killer Change at Sigma Draconis: both were blown into fragments. However the local Federation forces managed to unearth evidence linking ARCHANGEL to the destruction of Small Change. McRADIE was apparently responsible for the loss of Killer Change.

EON FLASHCORP’s Flashman took 3 hits at Mu Herculis.

GAMLEPCO’s Gunmetal took 3 hits at Sigma Draconis – McRADIE was implicated in this attack.

HOUSTON FEARLESS’s Ur-Zinc at Sigma Draconis took 2 hits and Ur-Lead at Gamma Leporis took 3 hits. Last, but not least, GATES-LEARJET took 2 hits on the Lianne at Sigma Draconis, with McRADIE being responsible once more.

The arrival of Aliens in Sigma Corvus produced a drop in Commodity Prices throughout the Quadrant.

HOUSTON FEARLESS bought 14 Alloys for 4 HTs each at Gamma Leporis, shutting out EON’s bid of 1 and gaining a Contractorship.

Epsilon Eridani saw HOUSTON FEARLESS selling 5 Isotopes on Contracts, before selling 8 Monopoles at the unit price of 13 HTs and being made a Dealer.

Mu Herculis was busy: EON sold 6 Alloys for 12 HTs each and gained a Dealership. HOUSTON wanted to sell Isotopes, but their ship failed to arrive. MONOGRAM sold Monopoles short, selling 4 for 8 HTs each, and EON FLASHCORP bought 5 on Contracts.

MONOGRAM wanted to buy Alloys at Sigma Draconis, but the price rose unexpectedly. They did sell 4 Monopoles for 13 HTs apiece. MONOGRAM wanted to buy Spice, but only got 1 at 7 HTs, as HOUSTON bought 12 Spice at 8 HTs and became a Dealer.

Beta Hydri saw HOUSTON selling 8 Isotopes for 2 HTs each, after which MONOGRAM sold 11 Monopoles using its Contracts and Agent Crip.

EON FLASHCORP increased their Reputation, and laid down a new Corco Gamma Hull with cargo pods at Epsilon Eridani called Flashcard.

GATES-LEARJET increased their Political Connections.

ARCHANGEL shuffled pods and bought some Cargo and Light Weapon pods. The Corporation now has a mixture of liners and escorts. The Oral agreement to lend money to HOUSTON wasn’t needed after all.

HOUSTON FEARLESS repaid their loan and immediately took out a larger one, this for 774 HTs for 4 Quarters. The money was used to buy 9 Isotope Factories at Tau Ceti and 4 Alloy Factories at Gamma Leporis. Ur-Silver was re-armed: the Cargo pods were sold, the Passenger pod stored and Light Weapons bought.

And MONOGRAM? They bought 17 Monopole Factories. They just have fewer ships to transport their production.

MACRADIE’s CREW are apparently open to payment of protection money…

Corporations Table

Corporation letter & name		Conn'n Levels Bus/Crim/Pol			Init Bid	Turn Order	Cash	Rep'n	Player
A	Archangel Lines	4	0	2	0	4th	196	32	Jerry Elsmore
B	Eon Flashcorp	7	9	9	0	6th	377	40	Paul Evans
D	Gates-Learjet	9	6	5	0	5th	74	29	Dominic Howlett
E	McRadie’s Crew	5	10	0	10	2nd	139	0	Martin Jennings
F	Monogram Industries	10	0	7	9+5	3rd	102	40	Michael Martinkat
G	Houston Fearless	10	0	5	20	1st	501	40	Przemyslaw Orwat
H	GamLepCo	5	0	4	N	7th	144	26
'N' under Initiative Bid indicates No Move Received; ‘F’ indicates the Corp was floated

GM Notes

A replacement player is invited for GamLepCo.

Event 2 took place this turn, with the alien contact spooking stock markets, along with a series of sabotage attacks.

Three new News chits (in bold):
    Turn 11 C6
    Turn 12 C8, P5
    Turn 13 B2